A Path Not Trodden
by Tom Marksen
Summary: Story begins following Mass Effect I. The council recognizes the Reapers as a threat but is split on what action to take. As an immediate course of action Shepard is sent to hunt down known allies of the Reapers to strengthen the Council's position in the Galaxy for when the Reapers do arrive. However, there are those that think that more drastic action needs to be taken.


**Chapter 1: Hunting Geth**

"I count three Geth ships in orbit and one on the ground, Commander. They do not see us. Stealth drive functioning as normal."

"Thanks Joker." John Shepard radioed from his command station overlooking the galaxy map. Except now it displayed a planetary system with three red dots, the Geth ships, in orbit around the fourth planet. An additional dot was stationary on the planetary surface. The _Normandy_ , a large blue dot was flying towards that planet. "Admiral Mikhailovich, the _Normandy_ is in position. Begin diversion now."

"Understood Commander. Deploying the _Trojan_." Mikhailovich responded. There was no anger in his voice. There never was during an operation. Before, after, and every other moment of the day there was anger, but never in combat. A green dot appeared on the system map and begin transmitting.

"This is the _SSV Trojan_ broadcasting a distress signal. Ship is damaged and crew is in danger. Life support is off line. Requesting aid. SOS!"

The Geth ships changed course immediately and began accelerating towards the ship in distress. The ship planet side remained there. "Clock is ticking Shepard. Get down there and stop the Geth from destroying the site before the ones up here realize it is a trap." Mikhailovich ordered.

" _Normandy_ is on the way" Joker called over the radio. Shepard turned and took the elevator down to the cargo bay. His squad was waiting for him.

"Tali, Liarra, you are with me. We will head to the Geth Command Center where Tali will hack into their system and download their information. Liara will scan the Protheon ruins and identify why the Geth are here. Garrus lead Bravo Team to provide cover fire and support. Ashley drop in the MAKO with Charlie to serve as our reserve."

The three teams gave an affirmative to his orders and Alpha team jumped from the _Normandy_ 100,000 in the air. "Leave it to humans to think of this as an appropriate insertion technique." Tali complained. Liara just laughed.

They fell for what seemed forever. The ground, green and lush, came closer and closer. Looking up he could see Garrus and Bravo Team jump. Ashley would not be far behind. "I think I am going to be sick." Tali moaned.

"Don't throw up down the wrong tube," Shepard smirked. Tali flipped him a gesture. "Shepard that means…" Liara began.

"I know what it means Liara," Shepard cut her off. "Deploy chutes." Three parachutes deployed and the team glided over the jungle towards the ruins. They hit the ground running and quickly made it into the ruined streets.

"Geth," Tali warned. She was right. There was a patrol of four of them in the street ahead.

"Liara, Singularity" Shepard ordered. "Tali, jam their radios. Shepard raised his assault rifle and fired. The team caught the four Geth by surprise and quickly overwhelmed them. They cut through the next group and the one after that. This was not the first group of Geth that Shepard had hit after the attack on the Citadel two months ago. Shepard and his team were well trained and they went through the Geth like a whirlwind.

"Bravo Team landed" Garrus reported in. "Moving to provide fire support."

"Charlie Team reporting in. MAKO is on ground." Ashley reported right after Garrus.

"Yeah well you better get a move on it, down there." Joker radioed in. "The Geth ships up here are turning around and coming back towards you. Their ship on the ground is powering up too. Don't worry I am on it." The Geth ship took off and began heading straight towards Shepard. It fired and the team had to take cover. The Geth ship flew past them firing. Explosions rocked the ruins, showering rubble down on the street. The ship circled around and lined up on Shepard and his team.

"Now would be a very good time Joker!" Shepard called up.

The _Normandy_ boomed overhead firing its mass effect cannon. It hit the Geth ship right in the middle and blew it apart. The Geth ship exploded into a thousand pieces, raining fire and metal down from the heavens.

"Nice shooting Joker" Shepard congratulated.

"No problem commander. It is not like it's the first time I've saved you." Joker answered as the Normandy flew spaceward once more.

"We are almost to the command center," Tali reported. "Look there it is at the end of the street. Look out!" A torrent of rifle fire from a side street hit her and she went down behind a pile of flaming rubble. An enemy unit had outflanked them. Geth appeared in the street ahead of them catching them in a cross fire. Liara threw up a biotic barrier giving both her and Shepard to get to cover. The Geth had taken cover as well and were laying down suppressive fire. The real threat was from the aliens in the side street. Aliens, not Geth.

The aliens were bipedal insectoids armed with assault rifles, and they were advancing quickly. "We need to slow them down," Shepard declared. "Barrier and covering fire, Liara."

Liara threw her barrier back up and fired down the road at the static Geth. Shepard switched his rifle to automatic and fired down the side street towards the advancing aliens. His hail of bullets stopped them. One fell and the rest stepped behind cover. His rifle overheated so he followed up with a grenade down street. The explosion took out a second alien but the remaining three stepped back out into the street and resumed firing. Shepard had to dive back beneath the cover and found Liara crouching there too, she was panting with exhaustion from maintaining the barrier.

"These Geth are heavier armed then the last group," she gasped.

"They are not alone either," Sheppard replied. "The Geth seem to have made friends with some bugs who brought shiny new toys with them."

"Bugs, really Shepard?" Liara questioned. "Are all humans this offensive when meeting new races?"

"Only when those new races are trying to kill us." Shepard answered with a grin. "Garrus, are you going to show up today?"

Shepard's question was answered by two bangs and a boom. Garrus was on the roof of the building behind them with the marines: Harold and Wu. Between their two sniper rifles and grenade launcher they made short work of the approaching aliens. "Heard you had a bug problem, Shepard." Garrus called down. "Did I ever tell you about that time I was a licensed exterminator on the Citadel?"

Between Shepard and Garrus's team on the roof, the Geth were soon destroyed as well. A little medigel got both Tali and Liara back on their feet and to the command center. It was empty. "Looks like that last group of Geth were the ones working in here." Tali assessed.

"Alright people, tell me what we got." Shepard commanded. He was on edge. That group of aliens had him on edge. They were unexpected, and bad things happened on missions when the unexpected started showing up. Garrus stepped in.

"Shepard, those 'bugs' are Collectors." Garrus announced.

"What…?" Shepard caught Liara's glance and corrected himself. "Who are the Collectors?"

"Don't know much about them," Garrus answered. "Only read reports about them. Shy race, no official contacts, always worked off the books. Everyone said they were strange, had unfamiliar tech but always honest in their dealings."

"They don't sound too bad," Liara said.

"That is not all," Garrus interrupted. "The reports mentioned that they may be behind some several hundred disappearances."

"None of that matters right now," Shepard spoke up. "They are with the Geth and shooting at us. We shoot them now and ask questions later."

"Shepard, I found the remaining Geth," Tali announced. "They are holed up in this sector," she pointed at the monitor. "Oh no. They are arming a bomb. We need to stop it now!"

"Garrus and Liara come with me," Shepard ordered. "Tali stay here with the marines. Hack the Geth systems and learn whatever else you can." Shepard gave the last order over his shoulder as he ran out the door.

It was not far to the Geth occupied building but the run seemed to take longer than it should have. The Geth were arming a bomb not far from him and three Geth ships were speeding back from the edge of the system. Three ships would defeat the Normandy. Shepard had to finish here quickly to get picked up in time. If he took too long and Joker had to flee; he would be stuck on this planet with Geth raining down on him.

Shepard stopped at the last building before the Geth occupied building and glanced around the corner. Garrus said what he was thinking "Colossus." A Geth battle tank stood in front of the building facing right towards him. It fired. The explosion knocked him off his feet and he clambered further behind the building corner as the Colossus fired again and good sized chunk of the building was blown apart. He heard another boom but no explosion followed it. He looked out in time to see a second blow hit the Colossus. The MAKO was rolling up the street from behind the Colossus firing into it. The Colossus turned to face the MAKO and Shepard opened fire into the Geth's back. Garrus and Liara joined in the fight and together they brought the Colossus down.

"I got your six, Commander." Ashley reported from inside the MAKO.

"Thanks Ash." Shepard grinned. "Let's go team."

The team made its way into the ruined building. There were no Geth. There were no alive Geth. Dead Geth and scorched walls adorned the building. There had been a firefight here.

"Looks like the Collectors and the Geth had a disagreement in here," Liara said.

"Whatever deal they were working in here definitely went south," Shepard agreed.

"There are only Geth bodies in here," Garrus observed. "Looks like they were ambushed from multiple directions. If it was the Collectors, it was not a deal gone bad. This looks like a betrayal."

Shepard turned the corner and was hit by submachine gun fire. An armored human lit him up as soon as he saw Shepard. Shepard fired his shotgun, hit the human with a direct blast and then rammed into him, knocking him over. Shepard got up but the mysterious human remained down. Liara felt his neck. "He is unconscious. Well at least we can deduce who was fighting the Geth. There are other humans here."

Gunfire echoed down the corridor. Shepard followed it. The corridor led to a large room. The Geth were cornered on one side of it with humans firing from the other side. The humans were dressed like the man they had just ran into. White and Black power armor. The humans had pinned the Geth down but could not advance to destroy them. Cooling corpses on the ground showed that they had tried. The Geth were fully engaged in fighting off the other humans. Fully engaged except two Geth who were working on a device. "The bomb" Shepard thought.

"What is the plan Shepard?" Garrus inquired. "Sit back and let them kill each other?"

"We can't," Shepard answered. "See those two Geth. They are arming a bomb. We let them finish and we are history."

"Shouldn't be a problem," Garrus smiled as he brought his sniper rifle to his shoulder and fired. One Geth's head exploded and Garrus lined up on the second one but it scuttled behind the bomb. Screams brought everyone attention to the human battle position. The Geth had outflanked them and were cutting them down one by one.

"Looks like our dilemma of who to fight was just solved," Liara sighed. Shepard and team engaged the Geth, catching them in the flank. Caught between two foes the Geth were quickly destroyed. Liara created a singularity over the bomb, catching the last Geth in it who she silenced with a single pistol shot. When the smoke cleared the other humans were gone, dead or fled. Garrus ran over to the bomb and powered it down.

"That was close," Garrus chuckled. "I'm not the Geth expert that Tali is, but they were pretty close to setting that thing off."

"Shepard," Tali radioed in. "The Collectors transferred a large cache of data to the Geth network. I copied it but it requires a special decryption code. One of the Geth by you should have it."

Shepard, Liara, and Garrus began combing through the dead Geth. Shepard found it. "Got it Tali."

"How nice of you to find what I was looking for, Shepard." A cold voice said. Shepard and Garrus spun towards it. The voice belonged to a tall dark haired woman dressed in a tight fitting suite of black and white armor. Normally Shepard would have admired her figure, she was beautiful, but she held a gun to Liara's head.

"Now give me the disk," she demanded. "Too many died here for us to leave empty handed."

"Easy there," Shepard said. "No need for violence. Just put the gun down and we can talk this out."

"Put the gun down?" The woman scoffed. "I don't see that ending well for me. We do not have much to talk about Shepard. Just give me the disk and I will be on my way."

Garrus raised his rifle. "I can shoot her Shepard. There is a chance I could hit Liara but I am sure she understands. Hostages rarely come out of situations like these alive."

The woman must have heard Garrus because she shifted herself behind Liara so she was further out of Garrus' line of sight. She was not alone either. Two other human survivors were making their way through the rubble towards them. They wore the identical black and white armor that all the other humans were wearing. Only the woman wore different armor. She must be an officer, the leader.

Shepard was running out of time. He could not attack and risk Liara and her back up was coming closer. Maybe if he could find out her intentions, who she was working for, then they could find common ground, or at least a point he could negotiate from. "I apologize" he started, "this all started off on the wrong foot, but you have me at a disadvantage. You know my name but I do not know yours."

"And I plan to keep it that. Oh, no you don't." The woman said that last part to Liara who had been preparing to biotically push the woman away. The dark-haired woman reinforced her words by pushing her pistol right against Liara's temple. Liara relented and raised her hands in surrender. The woman returned her focus to Shepard. "When dealing with a SPECTRE a girl must maximize every available advantage. Don't you agree?" She whispered the last part to Liara but loud enough for Shepard to hear it.

The woman's reinforcements stepped up on either side of her and leveled their guns on Shepard and Garrus. Shepard had meant to distract the woman but her banter had distracted him for her reinforcements' approach. "It has been fun boys but I really must be going." She smiled at Shepard and Garrus and then the smile disappeared. "Give me the disk and everyone walks away alive."

Shepard hesitated, looking for a way out, an alternate course of action. "Now!" The woman demanded. Her back up tensed, trigger fingers squeezed. "Alright. You win." Shepard shouted. He handed the data disk over to her. She took it but kept her gun on Liara. "Move Asari. You are coming with us until we are out of range. Shepard, stay here." The woman and her two guards escorted Liara to the far side of the room. "Goodbye Shepard, better luck next time." She called out and pushed Liara to the ground before disappearing around the corner.

Shepard sprang into action. He sprinted across the room and around the corner after the fleeing humans with Garrus in hot pursuit. Down two flights of stairs and out a back door, they ran. Shepard was gaining on them. The _Normandy_ boomed in overhead. "Excellent timing Joker," Shepard radioed up. "We are in pursuit of three humans who are in possession of critical information. Find their transport and eliminate it."

"Uh, Shepard I am a little busy up here with the Geth and all. Can I get back to you in a second?"

Shepard turned the corner. The _Normandy_ was landing in the large open area past the last buildings. The three Humans dressed in black and white were running towards it. "They are right in front of you Joker," Shepard called in. "Stop them and we are out of here."

"What are you talking about Commander? I am in space with the rest of the fleet dealing with the remaining Geth ships."

Shepard froze and looked at the ship in front of him more closely. It was not the _Normandy_. It looked like it but the name painted on the side was _Calais_. The three humans were almost to it. They were almost to their ship. Shepard swore and pulled up his sniper rifle. He was breathing heavily from the running but concentration calmed his heart rate and he aimed at her and fired. The shot hit, it dropped her shield, but she kept on running. Shepard reacquired his sight picture but her two companions fell into a single file line behind her blocking his shot. Shepard fired anyway and the first man's head exploded in a shower of gore. Garrus fired right next to Shepard and the second man fell. Only the woman was left.

The _Calais_ accelerated forward, skimming mere inches above the ground. The woman jumped in the air right into the cargo bay. The ship turned skyward and blasted past Shepard towards space. That stunt should have killed that woman but Shepard had seen the biotic wall she had thrown up to cushion her collision and knew she would survive. Whoever she was, she was capable and Shepard would see her again. He would get that disk back.


End file.
